Day to Day :)

So it's been over two weeks since my last post, and I'm trying to remember everything I've squeezed into those two weeks...

I have been lucky enough to not be attacked by the Fresher Flu or any other illness circling college, the worst I've had is a bit of a snuffle here and there, unfortunately I couldn't escape injury...somehow or another (probably on a night out) I sprained my ankle and it was incredibly painful for 2weeks or so - stupidly I continued to dance on it, and play hockey...it seems to be on the mend now, and luckily just in time for Ball where I will be wearing heels :)

The last two weeks have been hockey mad - IH is one of 10 colleges at UQ and they have sporting and cultural competitions against one another, IH is amazing at cultural, and awful at sport, but it's all good fun - the last two weeks have been hockey season, with 4 matches on both weekends...we lost all 8 - but had a lot of fun and a lack of sleep, and a lot of sore muscles...it's been a few years since I've played any real sport and I really enjoyed just getting out there for the fun of it.

The ICC (Inter-College-Cultural Competition) has been much more interesting...I attended Oratory (public speaking) which we came second in, Milk Run, which we came third in, and we are currently prepping for DanceFest which is the biggest ICC competition - so lots more dancing and lots more fun.

BALL :) :) IH annual ball is tomorrow evening, and we are all sooooo excited, I bought a dress here for $80 (around £50) it's full length and purple - I'll upload pictures next blog...we are all so excited to get dressed up and dance the night away...then Saturday is recovery - a whole day of drinking and games at a local outdoor arena, so this weekend will be a lot of fun, and a complete write off in terms of work and sanity - but one to remember...I'm sure you'll all be excited for the pictures.

I've enjoyed exploring the city more, spending long afternoons at the man-made beach in Southbank, exploring the botanical gardens, playing mini-golf at a nearby golf course, and of course getting stuck into my courses...then there have been the nights out - always a laugh in australia...everything here is so carefree and relaxed. Wish you could all be here to enjoy it too..

This afternoon is dedicated to work, to get it all done in time for this weekend...watch out for the next blogpost which will no doubt recount stories of ball and forthcoming events :) :)

miss you all...lots of love G xx

HousieHousieHousie...

So since I last updated my blog it's been about a week..not doing too good at the whole keeping you all updated thing - sorry! Oweek was AMAZING - it finished with a bang...Dreamworld (the theme park) was a lot of fun :) and then rubix cube night was a real life, Saturday we ventured to a nearby bar for drinks, and Sunday saw us performing the Fresher Dance 10 times...I have never hated a song more, Britney Spears - I Wanna Go will never be the same, and when I hear it back in the UK you better watch out for my amazing moves tehehehe...Sunday there was SGM where I was voted Fresher Rep and it was all finished off with 'becoming a housie' which was hilarious and freezing - unlike UK initiations there was less focus on alcohol but more focus on being loud and doing ridiculous things - from begin painted on, to having to fish out sweets from cold baked beans and from eating weetabix with no liquid to apple bobbing out of suncream..it was very messy but very fun.

When Oweek was over I was expecting it to quiten down - couldn't have been more wrong, Monday was Bara Khana, otherwise known as formal dinner, where we all got dressed up and served a three course meal - much like Nightingale. It was a fun evening but we were all really tired, Tuesday I started classes - class here is intense and fast paced but also really fast paced so looking forward to the semester :) although freaking out about dissertation topics....

Thursday there was a snow night at a local bar, needless to say i stayed well away from the ice and snow, but it was really fun to socialise as a big group and get out IH chants out...Friday morning it was off to watch Harry Potter (finally) and do some shopping in the city...Saturday was our first proper night out here to a club - lots of fun, and lots of good music, but made me miss Ocean on a Friday!! Saturday day a massive group of us went to the Gold Coast (about an hour away) to swim in the Pacific Ocean and play volleyball - it was quite chilly, but I still made it into the ocean and enjoyed the beauty of an Australian Beach - while Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest we ended up getting roped into the Hockey Team Practice, and Chelsea and I are now playing this coming Saturday :) good fun but so much exercise is taking it's toll and making me very sleepy and very stiff..Sunday night saw auditions for a One Act Play come round - we're hoping to do A Single Man, and I auditioned for the part of Charley - cast list goes up tomorrow but i'm not very hopeful - still enjoying myself so much though :)

Another week, another host of activites already planned, and a whole 'heap' of work to be getting on with...

G xxxx

Oweek Adventures

Brisbane from the CityCat City Cat - Spider Bridge



B



So it's Thursday Morning of Oweek, and I'm running off about 3 hours of sleep in the last 24 hour period (or something equally ridiculous) Oweek is the Oz version of Fresher's, and unlike Nottingham where I spent the majority of the week ill, I'm actually really enjoying this one...

We have been up to allsorts; from fresher games which take the awkwardness out of meeting people, to learning a full dance routine to Britney - I wanna go..that song is like a nightmare going round in my head because of the amount of times we have to practise..all good fun though. We've been woken up at 6am to go for a 5K run, and to practise the dance, had a round the world party which I went to as Pippa Middleton, and 3 other Brits went as Kate, Wills and Harry....We've been exploring the city some more, and it's nightlife (stupidly expensive!)...

Yesterday was ice-skating, followed by a bar crawl which started at 7pm, and then on return to IH we were forced to stay awk till 4:30am when we went to Mount Coo-tha to see the sunrise over Brisbane - the views were amazing, and the pictures really don't do it justice, we were freezing and there for about two hours before returning to our beds at 7am this morning. We did get pancakes at the top of the mountain though, and were proud of ourselves for making it all the way through...

Tomorrow we're off to Dreamworld, a theme park on the gold coast and then it's back to IH for a Rubix Cube Party...these jam-packed days continue till Sunday evening when we finially 'become a housie' and then term begins...

It's lots of fun, and a lot less pressure and alcohol orientated than England Fresher's week - not that i got to experience much of it, I'm enjoying myself but also missing those at home, and wishing you were all here to do these activities with me :) :)


At 4:30 on Mount Cootha Dawn at Mount Cootha


Love G xxx

Koala Lone Pine Sanctuary

Today was exciting :) - pottered off to Lone Pine Sanctuary which is the biggest foala sanctuary in the world - wahoooo, while quite expensive, it's well worth the $24 dollars + $16 to hold a koala. It's a really interactive sanctuary with Kangaroo's, Wallaby's, Crocodiles, and of course KOALA's :) - for the first time it really felt like we were in Oz as we pottered around in dusty ground, feeding and playing with the wildlife that is so heavily linked to this country...The sky is SO high here, (very random I know - maybe it's because we're actuall upside down) anyway...enjoy the photo's :)

Love G xxx

City Cat, Centre and Southbank...

My first full day in Brisbane (and every day since) I have been on the city cat and explored Brisbane City Centre and Southbank...Once registered as a student here you get given a Go Card transport card with $15 of credit, this allows you to access all Queensland transport (busses, ferries and trains) for half price :) a single is $4.60 across zones 1 & 2 (city centre to university) so the 50% off is a must have for students!!

The CityCat is slower than the bus, but the better journey into the centre, it is a ferry boat along the Brisbane river which is impressively wide with amazing bridges and lots of sky. My favourite bridge is the 'spider bridge' which has an impressive number of web like structures. You see Brisbane grow on the horizon as you travel along the river which is a wonderful view.

Get off a North Quay for the city centre or an easy walk to Southbank. The main shopping area (and really the main hub of Brisbane city centre) is Queen Street which is a long pedestrian strip filled to the brim with stalls, banks, shopping mall's and small boutiques...it seems to go on forever and is a shopper's dream! One thing I love about Brisbane is that the streets that go To and From the river have (english) Princess names, so apart from Queen street, you get (elizabeth, charlotte, margaret) and then the streets that run parrallel to the river are (english) Prince names (edward, albert...) It's something really simple but really cute, and means you always know which way you're heading.

Southbank is my favourite area of Brisbane so far, it is on the opposite side of the river to the City Centre, and known as the 'Cultural Hub' of Brisbane - it's got a theatre, a museum, a ferris wheel, art gallery, cinema, and then rows upon rows of cafe's and restaurants. It's got such a cosmopolitan feel, with wide walkways, a river and beautiful flowerbeds and architectual delights. At weekend's it holds a market, while not very Australian in the things it sells, it is swarming with australians and internationals a like and is the perfect spot for people watching and enjoying cultural delights from around the world.

Another attraction of Southbank is the 'man-made' beach - confusingly enough Brisbane isn't actually on the coast, and you have to travel down to the Gold Coast or up to the Sunshine Coast. The man-made beach is really maintained, and while too cold to swim in at the moment, will be fun to hang out at in the coming summer.

(Man-Made Beach)

I enjoyed a lazy sunday in Southbank, with bright sunshine and a cloudless sky, I also went back there on Monday afternoon with two american guys and a french girl...here I made my first blonde moment; there is a man suspended on a unicycle over the central square of Southbank restaurant area, he reminds me of the human statues in Covent Garden, and I was convinced it was a real man - after arguing with all 3 for several minutes that i KNEW it was a real man, and that he would frighten them if they didn't believe it, they forced me into the local newsagents to prove myself right....needless to say that the newsagents found it a hilarious question and weirdly enough rarely get asked it - 'how could you think that was a real man' was the common response from both shopkeeper and other customers...I'm now known as the 'he is real!' girl, which I suppose is better than 'glandular fever girl' (from when i started Nottingham).




Love...G xxxx

Brisbane Beginnings...

(my new room (before unpacking))


It's now 1:30pm on Tuesday 12th July and I have been here for just under 3 days. The last 3 days have been a roller-coaster of emotion and exploration and new cultures. After (changing) rooms I now have a beautiful one on the 5th floor of G tower in International House on the St.Lucia campus. They do not have great insulation here or heating because for the majority of the year it is surplus, but at the moment (middle of winter) it is quite cold!!

My room is sort of like a more dated Nightingale without a double bed haha. It is quite large, and 12 of us share bathroom facilities, at the moment it is the week before O-Weel (equivalent of freshers) so it is quite quiet, but more people arrive every day. In some ways I'm quite glad I came early as it has allowed me to settle before things really get going.


(view's from Balcony)

The food options here are really good - far better than Ngale, although I am not particularly hungry at the moment - you can have as many servings as you want at mealtimes, and it's a lot healthier than I remember Ngale being. One thing I have noticed is that Oz doesn't seem to have any 'signature dishes' - atleast not in Brisbane, it seems to have quite a heavy asian influence, and european.

So far, I have got my uni card, been to a getting started session where they warned us about different types of birds on the campus, got my 'Go card' (which gives discounted travel), been to Indroopilly (a local suburb) shopping centre, explored the campus a little, and been to the city centre several times. I am going back in a few mintues to get my bank account sorted and hopefully by the end of the week I will also have a working phone and be all set up :)...

Love G xxxx

Auckland Adventures...

Auckland continued to be very special and beautiful. Friday we spent getting matt settled in, finding somewhere for him to buy things cheap, getting his bank account sorted and a NZ sim card...we were struck by just how frienly people were, everyone wanted to have a chat and find out more about us and our lives in England, it was a beautiful friendly city, surprisingly small in comparison to the UK and yet so similar to the UK in so many ways, it was a wonderful place to recoperate and spend some time together :)

We decided to go up the Sky Tower on the Friday afternoon and bought Sun&Star tickets which meant we could go back to see it at evening. The pictures really don't do it justice, the views were stunning, and you could see so far beacuse of Aucklands low skyline. There was so watch and then city and then park that it made the most beautiful scene.

We found a great cafe for breakfast which we ate at on both Friday and Saturday - I had french toast with syrup, bacon and grilled banana nomnomnom :) so yummy! Sushi is very popular in auckland - with almost every other cafe selling sushi (although we THINK sushi might be cafe in maori - even so there was still a lot of sushi). The last evening was beautiful in the sky tower, watching the flickering lights of Auckland over a glass of New Zealand wine...a lovely beginning to our new adventures.

And the next morning, Brisbane was calling my name....